1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to interconnected processing systems, and more particularly, to processing systems that dynamically control I/O interface performance and power consumption.
2. Description of Related Art
Interfaces within and between present-day integrated circuits have increased in operating frequency and width. In particular, in multiprocessing systems, both wide and fast connections are provided between many processing units. Data width directly affects the speed of data transmission between systems components, as does the data rate, which is limited by the maximum frequency that can be supported by an interface. However, such fast and wide interconnects are significant power consumers in a computer system formed from interconnected processing units.
The processing units in a multi-processing system, particularly a symmetric multi-processing system (SMP) may need to communicate at any time, since, for example, when close affinity is provided between processors, a processor might access memory that is located on a remote node, but that is otherwise available in the processor's memory space. Therefore, for the above and other reasons, present-day multi-processing systems typically keep the physical layer of the interfaces operational and cycle idle data patterns on the interconnects in order to maintain calibration of the links when transmissions are not being made over the interface physical layer. However, such operation wastes power, generates heat, and raises background noise levels (electromagnetic emissions) in the system. The alternative of placing the interface physical layers in a power-managed state would lead to unacceptable latency for transactions.
It is therefore desirable to provide an interface and computer system that more effectively manage the state of interface physical link layers in a multi-processing system to reduce power consumption and background noise levels.